Topic 5 Good Intentions

As mentioned, the “insult” often happens when people are trying to be good people. They slip out although they have good intentions, trying to be polite:

• They make a compliment: “You are so professional.”
• They are curious: “where do you really come from?”
• They show comfort: “You are from India? I love Ravi Shankar.”
• They try to be funny: “Can we get el mucho discounto?”

One of the reasons it’s so easy to slip out when people have good or benign intentions is that we all have unconscious (or implicit) biases. There are assumptions and expectations that we hold about certain groups of people without even necessarily being aware of it.